Round 1: Grant Trojemo vs. Brailynn Moore

The young Spring tried to hide the look of disgust on her face as her boots sunk into the mud below their feet, asking herself why exactly she was doing this again. She had no reason really, it was nothing more than a stupid dare. She figured, why not? What the hell? Being the least gifted out of the bunch - she knew that she had no chance at winning the cup - but the blonde felt confident enough that she could win a round or two. Luckily, she knew who she was fighting before hand. She'd seen him once or twice in the Gift Mastery classes. It was just her luck that she'd be paired up with the guy who could melt her skin off. Gross.

For this reason, she was dressed almost entirely from the neck down in leather clothing, hoping it'd do a little to help deter whatever he had to throw at her. It wasn't much, but it had to help at least a little, right? Brailynn was nervous, especially when she saw this Grant appear on the stage with her, but there was no denying her smile and the sharp look in her eyes. She had no gift to rely on, but she was well taught by other means, and this competition was sort of exciting.

"I hope you won't get too down after you get your ass handed to you by a girl." Brailynn taunted, grinning and adjusting her gloves, the weight of the metal knuckles digging in.

Slowly walking up to the stage, Grant could feel himself sweating. He didn't like the idea of using his power on someone else, even if this was just some type of simulation. As his opponent came into view, he started to smile. Sure, it would be hard for him, but he would obviously need to use it if he was going to fight someone like this. He didn't even know her power, that only made her more dangerous. Taking in his surroundings, he started to think about the areas he could abuse. It'd be hard, but I could turn the stream into acid. After that, I would just need to push her in. I could also use this grass. Well, at least they had given him something to work with. He might need some time to convert that stream, but it couldn't be that hard, could it? Does she think that armor will actually help her? He looked down at his shoes, which her half way in the mud. He could also use his clothes, couldn't he? "Don't worry!" he called back. "I've handled much worse!" He tried to crack his knuckles in an attempt to look intimidating, but failed. He couldn't even get one crack out of them. He quickly put his hands in his pockets, trying to hide his shame. "You didn't see that."

Brailynn gave a small, exasperated laughter at the other guy's attempt to show off, shaking her head in second-hand embarrassment. "Smoooth." The girl mused, bringing her knuckles to her palm and cracking several of them at once, giving him a slightly sly look as she showed off. Her eyes narrowed as she gave the guy a once look over. The way he stood, moved, talked - he didn't seem like that much of a threat. His gift seemed to be the only thing that he had working for him. If that was the case, then it'd probably be best if she ended the math as quickly as possible. There would be no time for playing games or fooling around.
With this in mind, she wasted no time sprinting forward, light on her toes and closing the distance between them in a matter of seconds - aiming a fist for his jaw.

Man, how could she be so intimidating? Let's see, i need to get her stuck in the mud somehow... I don't think I would normally have enough time to change the stream. He stared at where she was standing, thinking about whether or not it was deep enough to keep her stuck. If it was, how could he get around it and still get her stuck? No no no, I could probably use the mud. Now all that was left was for one of them to make the first move. If i'm going to win, I have to get to her before she leaves the mud. As he was about to charge, his eyes grew wide at the speed of this girl. Could that be her power? Something involving speed? Oh crap! Quickly moving to the left, and barely avoiding her fist, he placed his hand on her back, and replaced her leather armor with acid. Now some of her body was exposed. That was all he needed.

The Spring gritted her teeth in annoyance as he quickly moved aside just out of her reach, but she wasn't going to be thrown off by it - his little dodge nothing more than luck and a slight inconvenience. She'd already had her next moved picked out by the time he'd found his way out of the hit, pulling her elbow back and quickly jabbing him in the side of the head. Once more in the jaw if she could help it - knowing that a sharp blow there could easily knock someone off their feet, if not knock them out cold.

What did catch her off guard was when she felt the sharp slap on her back, the area where he touched quickly starting to fizzle and burn - and it was spreading quickly. In a bit of a panic, she stumbled back a few steps, quickly shedding off what was left of the clothing and throwing it into the mud. "Shit." She muttered, left with a tinged tank-top on and staring the jacket down as it melted away. There were a few small patches on her skin, bright red, burning and bubbling - where she hadn't pulled it off quickly enough. "You just want to melt my clothes off then? You pervert." The blonde taunted, a harsh look on her face as she straightened up to meet him. Anything he touched he could make into acid then? She thought he could just spit it at her, or something. She wouldn't be making that same mistake again.

Already off balance, the jab was enough to send him to the floor before the second hit could even arrive. He lifted his head from the floor, afraid to see what she would do next. A large grin spread across his face as he she was distracted... Pulling off her clothes? Was she trying to get naked in front of him?  He dug his hands into the mud, and pulled out to scoops. Standing up, he stared her down. Who was she calling a pervert? She was doing this on her own. "Trust me, I've seen worse." he whispered to himself. "Maybe I do." he called over as he raised his hands. He had been working on seven new techniques, and only completed two. One of them, he could do now, adding up for a total of three. It'd hurt, but at least he wouldn't have any real damage. Just like practice. It'll be easy. He turned to his side, mimicking the baseball player from his television, and threw both the hands of mud at her. One, was meant to blind her if it hit, and the other one would most likely kill her. This was kind of two of his completed techniques. The acid was in the back, slowly converting the mud. She would most likely just think the second one was mud and not dodge. After all, it was aimed for her chest. Nothing bad could really come from mud on the chest, especially in a simulation. Before she would even notice, it would be dissolving into her body. He bent down and picked up two more scoops of mud, just in case she thought she could get closer.

She raised an eyebrow for several reasons. One that he said that he'd seen worse before, wondering who he'd manage to seriously burn in his lifetime and how he'd managed to get away with that. Another that he was scooping up the mud in his hands, which seemed rather strange at first - and she'd almost come to a conclusion before she noticed the grin on his face, muttering something under his breath. The young woman couldn't tell at all what she was saying, but she had a few good guesses. Jeez. Maybe he really was a pervert.

Brailynn focused herself on the match again, eying the balls of mud in his grasp, not trusting them what-so-ever. She couldn't think of how throwing mud her way would be of any use, unless he had some other reasoning behind it. The blonde had to find a way to get to where he couldn't grab at her, but she could still do damage. There was no way she could expect to win staying at a distance.

Her eyes slit again as he pulled his arm back, moving aside quickly as he threw the mud ball her way - swearing she heard a sizzle as it sped past her ear. The second was far more difficult to dodge. She tried to turn sideways to avoid it, but was caught in the mud and it grazed against her shirt, burning tatters into her shirt. She tripped to the ground, quickly twisting her foot out of the mud and clenching tightly to the damp grass. Lynn held back a few curses, watching as he picked up a few more mudballs. This was bad. This was very bad.

Her heart was racing, sweat beading at her forehead. The patch of grass she'd been holding onto quickly shriveled up and died, but she didn't notice. The girl was back on her feet in a moment and scooping up a mudball of her own, running faster than before towards his side and aiming the wet dirt at his face, just to see how he liked it - hopefully ready for anything he had to throw back at her. She supposed she just had to risk it.

Damn, how did she know? This might be pretty close... I need a way to slow her down... If I can somehow make her fall in the mud, it could probably slow her down a bit. Grant was practically drenched in not just sweat, but also mud. If he even had a slight chance of keeping up with her, he had to get rid of it. The only reason he hadn't already, was because he didn't like it when people saw him half naked. "Maybe I can flip her into the river." he whispered. Wait, was she trying to copy him? Did she think the mud itself was going to burn him? His eyes wandered over to where she was, trying to figure out if it would be a good area to set up. What was that? The grass had turned yellow? Could she manipulate the colors of objects? Wait, hadn't he met someone already who did that? Maybe she sucked life out of objects! But if she could do that, why didn't she do it when she hit me in the head? He cleared him mind as she got closer to him. She had gotten too close by the time he had finally come back to reality. He couldn't dodge, she would be able to get him before he could run away, he had to hope he could get more damage on her. Aiming one acid covered mud ball at her face, and the other at one of her shoulders.

OOC: I'm not even going to try anymore, you broke me in half like bane did to batman.

With narrowed eyes and a braced jaw, she eyed the piled of mud scooped up quickly in her grasp. The girl was so close by then that it'd take a miracle to dodge either one of them. But like hell if she wasn't going to at least try. Her determination near fleeted away in a matter of moments, feeling her eyes widen and her heart skip a beat as she saw one disgusting ball of mud and acid heading straight for her face. "Sh- " Brailynn didn't think, she simply did. In a blurred flash, she moved sharply out of the first ball's way, the other splashing against her shoulder - but in that rush she couldn't feel it at first. She was already there by him. She aimed one more fist at his face, spinning around on her free heel and bringing her leg up high and kicking his back. It felt way more powerful than before.

Yet the second the moment ended, a dizzyness washed over her and she felt herself stumbling back again, hissing through her teeth and tears stinging her eyes as the burn on her shoulder spread and sank in, fizzling and hissing; her skin turned ugly.

He smiled as he heard the sizzling of her skin, at least one of them hit, and all he needed was one. He was starting to feel confident about this battle, he was starting to think he could finish this. Of course, all of that confidence fled as he was given a quick shot to the face. As he started to fall backwards, he received another shot to his back, which pushed him forward and made him fall face first into the mud. What if my acid didn't work on her? How am I going to beat her now? As he lifted his face from the ground, some mud dropping off of it, he heard that familiar sizzle of skin. It was a sound he knew all too well. He turned around to face terrible sight of his opponent. This almost made him want to puke, almost. I guess I should finish her off. Picking up one more hand of mud, he picked himself up, and slowly took a step forward. You shouldn't have a problem with this, she's already about to die... It would just be better to end it now, even if this is just a simulation, she can still feel it. Taking a deep breath, he approached her with the mud in hand, slowly dropping off acid with each step. His plan was to cover her face with it, and hopefully end this.

The entire world around her turned blurry in those few moments and Brailynn found herself falling to her knees, wondering what exactly had just happened and grabbing her shoulder with her hand, finding back the tears and groaning. A small cry escaped her when the acid spread, tearing right through her shirt's band and eating away at her fingers. For a heartbeat, she'd completely forgotten about Grant. By the time she remembered, he was a haze a few feet away, but the girl new better by then to recognize the acid dripping from his hands. In that instant, she was completely terrified, but she still glared up at him defiantly - starting to get up again, but she was too off balance, and the pain in her shoulder was too much. With a deep pit in her stomach, she knew what was coming, but the young woman was still too proud and stubborn to surrender.

She near flinched the moment the mud was thrown as her face.